By Rich Pollack
Residents of a Gulf Stream condominium who have struggled with water pressure issues for more than three years met with Delray Beach officials last month hoping to learn why water mysteriously disappears from their faucets during early morning hours.
Instead, the meeting and a subsequent letter left them confused and with even more questions after Delray Beach’s utilities director suggested the four-story condominium’s own irrigation schedule was at least partially responsible.
“I was surprised,” said Harvey Baumgarten, a member of the Gulf Stream Shores board of directors. “At our meeting with them we were talking about irrigation throughout the whole town as a likely cause and this seemed to be pointing the finger at our own irrigation as a possible cause.”
Since about 2018, residents have tried to discover why water pressure in some of the complex’s 54 units is almost nonexistent early in the morning, especially during dry months of the year. The problem was so bad last winter that some residents had to collect buckets of water the night before to flush their toilets in the morning.
Baumgarten said problems this season were minimal as of late February, in part because a reasonable amount of rain had fallen.
Officials in Gulf Stream, which is responsible for getting water to the building on State Road A1A, did their best to determine what was creating the problem and couldn’t pinpoint a single cause.
Surmising that lawn watering at nearby properties might be a contributing factor, town leaders reminded residents of restrictions that limit watering to certain days of the week based on addresses.
Gulf Stream Shores residents also turned to Delray Beach hoping that the city, which provides water to its neighbor, could provide answers.
During the meeting with City Manager Terrence Moore, utilities director Hassan Hadjimiry and others, residents heard that Delray Beach’s water pressure is consistent all day and probably isn’t part of the problem.
Hadjimiry reiterated that message in his Feb. 23 letter to the Gulf Stream Shores board.
“It is imperative to note that the City of Delray Beach water treatment plant and remote storage tanks/repumps operate at 50 psi pressure range depending on the peak demand in the distribution system,” he wrote.
Instead, overwatering of lawns and landscaping was cited as one of the key culprits.
What surprised Baumgarten and others at Gulf Stream Shores was that Hadjimiry’s letter said part of the problem is caused by the condominium’s own irrigation schedule.
“The highest demand at Gulf Stream Shores is between midnight and 4 a.m.,” he wrote. “This high demand on potable water for irrigation is a direct contributor in experiencing lower water pressure to your residents.”
That confused board members because the low pressure happens later in the morning, between 5 and 7 a.m. They say they expressly moved the irrigation on their property to earlier in the morning to avoid any pressure issues.
Hadjimiry, like Gulf Stream officials, recommended the condominium purchase booster pumps and split irrigation zones to different days to minimize demand. He also suggested an irrigation audit to identify other ways to resolve issues.
Baumgarten said the board is looking into the possibility of booster pumps.
Board members are also looking forward to a meeting next month with Moore, Hadjimiry, Gulf Stream Town Manager Greg Dunham and other town leaders to try to figure what else can be done.
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